Independence Day
by crazytomboy78
Summary: It's the fourth of July, which means there are all new opportunities. What will happen next?


**Hey peeps! Just a quick one shot for the fourth of July, here. Got the idea while watching fireworks (:**

"So, what are you guys doing tonight?" Pepper asked.

"Nothing, why?" Tony asked.

"Because, uhh, duhh! It's July 4th! You guys have to be watching fireworks or something!" Pepper explained.

"Well, me and my dad never really watched fireworks the past few years. It's grown old for us." Tony said.

"Me and my parents usually go to the pier and watch." Rhodey said.

"Tony, you just have to watch the fireworks! It's so amazing and beautiful and fun!" Pepper said.

"Well, I guess if you guys want me to then fine, I will." Tony said. Pepper squealed.

"So, when and where exactly is this watching of the fireworks?" Tony asked.

"Uhh, I don't know. Sometime after dark at the waterfront or something?" Pepper explained.

"Well you guys pick the ideal spot and I'll just accompany you." Tony said.

The three were in Tony's lab, while Tony worked away on the armor. As Pepper sat in thought, she suddenly got an idea. She smiled.

"Oh, I got it! It's the perfect place for tonight!" She burst out.

"Where?" Rhodey asked.

"Where better to celebrate the country's birthday than at the very symbol of its freedom? The waterfront by the Statue of Liberty!" Pepper explained.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea." Tony said, looking up from his work.

"Awesome! So we should probably bring chairs or something to sit on, and warm clothing, and bug spray, and probably get there at sunset, because fireworks around here start shortly after sunset, and-" Pepper said, being cut off by her friends; like usual.

"We get it, Pepper." Rhodey stopped her. Pepper glared at Rhodey and looked down at her phone.

"Oh, it's already that late? I've got to go home quickly; I'll meet you guys there?" Pepper said, running out the lab door. She sprinted home and burst in her door. Her dad was gone, as usual. There was a note on the counter that said:

_Pepper,_

_Went down to the waterfront to watch fireworks. See you there?_

_Dad._

Pepper put the note back on the counter. She went up the stairs to her room and went in her bedroom. She went to her closet and opened the closet door. She found her favorite sweatshirt hanging on a hanger at the end of the rack in her closet, and took it off the hanger. It was red and slightly baggy. She slung it over her clothes, and removed her leggings. She replaced them with a pair of plaid pajama bottoms; like lounging pants. They were white with red, pink and purple plaid markings on them. She grabbed her favorite blanket and went back downstairs. She grabbed her fur boots and slipped them on. She walked out the door and headed for the pier.

On her way, she dialed Tony. She listened to the rings until Tony's voice sounded.

"Hello?"

"Tony, I'm on my way to the waterfront now, you'd better be too!" Pepper said.

"Umm, ok." Tony answered. Pepper rolled her eyes and hung up. She shoved her phone back in her sweatshirt pocket and continued walking.

Within minutes, she was at the waterfront and surprisingly not many people were there at all. Only Tony and Rhodey were sitting on a ledge with Pepper's dad, talking. Pepper sighed. Tony had better not have said anything to her father that he would regret saying.

"Hey, guys!" Pepper greeted as she approached them.

"Hey, Pepper." Tony and Rhodey greeted.

"Hey, sweetie!" Her father greeted. Tony was sitting on the end, next to Rhodey, who was next to Pepper's dad.

"I wonder why no one else thought of this?" Pepper asked.

"I don't know. They're not clever like you." Tony smiled, then turned away and blushed when he realized what he had said. Pepper smiled and blushed. Rhodey turned his head and smiled at his two friend's awkward moment. He knew that Pepper admitted she had a crush on Tony, but Tony was just so ignorantly blind to his emotions that he doesn't realize he feels the same way. And Rhodey could tell that Pepper's dad knew the same thing.

"She tells me about that boy all the time," Pepper's dad whispered to Rhodey. Rhodey laughed quietly to Pepper's dad.

"I can tell they like each other." Rhodey whispered back. **(A/N: the two know-it-alls here. I know I had to do that.) **Pepper's dad smiled to himself and turned back to the sky. The sun was setting in the sky, leaving a rainbow of colors in the sky. Pepper looked at it and smiled.

"I love watching the sunset, it's so beautiful." Pepper said quietly.

"I sometimes came down here with my mom when I was little, and we would watch the sun set together when my dad was working." Tony said. He remembered the last time he'd ever done that like it was yesterday. It was his last chance to say goodbye, and he hadn't even known it…

**Sorry, I have WAYYY overdone this, but the idea just came into my head. Flashback!**

_A woman in her late thirties went to her son in the living room to find him playing with his building blocks. He was constructing something that was beginning to resemble a microwave._

"_What are you making, Anthony?" the woman asked her brilliant son._

"_I'm making a microwave, mommy!" the little boy explained happily._

"_Good job, honey!" The woman cheered._

"_What's he up to now, Angela?" A man asked, walking into the living room from his bedroom nearby, while struggling to fix his tie. The woman got up and helped her husband with his tie._

"_Our little genius is making a microwave with his building blocks, sweetie." The woman explained proudly. She went back to her seat after fixing his tie. The man went up to his son and messed up his son's brown hair. The little boy's icy blue eyes lit up._

"_That's my boy!" The man praised._

"_Look daddy, I'm done!" the little boy smiled. The man gave his son a thumbs up and picked up his coat._

"_Alright, I have to go!" The man picked up his suitcase._

"_Alright, call me when you get off the plane." The woman gave her husband a kiss goodbye._

"_Bye daddy!" the little boy ran up to his father and gave him a hug. The man picked up his son and hugged him._

"_I'll be back in a week, okay son?" the man explained to his son. The boy nodded. The man walked out the door and was then gone._

"_Howard, I still don't understand why you're leaving for a business trip this late at night." The woman complained._

"_Relax, it's all for business reasons," the man explained._

"_Alright, Anthony, do you want to go see the sunset?" The mother asked. It was about eight at night._

"_Oh, boy, do I ever!" the boy cheered._

_The woman smiled and picked up her son. Together they walked down to the waterfront and sat on the ledge._

"_When I grow up, I wanna be just like daddy!" The boy said. The woman smiled._

"_You will be, honey," the woman looked up to the sky and watched the sunset, "You will be." _

_After the sun was set and the sky was dark, they got off the ledge and started to walk home. On their way home, the woman realized that while they were out, it would be a good idea to stop at a convenience store to buy some milk. They had been out since yesterday. They stopped at a popular convenience store on their way home that most citizens in the city favored over other shops._

"_Alright, we just need one carton of milk. Let's go find it!" The woman smiled. She put her son back down on the floor and let him run around to look for the milk._

_The boy found the milk in the freezer aisle in the back of the store and opened the door to it. He pointed out how the cooling system worked when the door was opened, grabbed the milk and closed the door. He turned around to head back to his mother when he noticed something was wrong._

"_Mommy, I found…mommy?" The boy said. There was a man in a small black mask that covered his eyes, like a raccoon, and a black sweater and black pants pointing a gun at the woman. The woman had her arms raised._

"_Tony, run! Get out of here, forget about the milk, and just go to James' house! Go there and tell Mrs. Rhodes what happened!" the woman ordered. _

"_But mommy! What about you?" The boy asked, terrified._

"_I'm fine, honey, I promise!" the woman assured him. The boy didn't move. The burglar pulled the trigger, sending a bullet through the woman's skin and deep inside her. The burglar let go of her and the woman fell limply and lifelessly to the ground. "MOMMY!" The boy screamed. The burglar heard the ear-piercing scream and turned to the boy._

"_Your mommy is gone, kid! Gone! Now scram before you end up joining her!" The burglar threatened. The boy wasn't stupid; he knew it was time to do what his mother told him to do. He ran out the automatic sliding doors and down the road to his best friend James' house. Along the way, he tripped on a stone and fell to the ground, scraping his knee. His knee started dripping blood, but he got up and continued running anyways. He ran and he ran. He ran until he came to a house. He knocked on the front door and waited for someone to answer. It was Maria, James' older sister. She was fourteen._

"_Tony! What happened to you? You're a mess!" Maria gasped._

"_Who's at the door, Maria?" Roberta asked from the next room._

"_It's Tony, mom! He's cut up pretty good, too!" Maria yelled back to her mother._

"_Here, come into the kitchen with me and I'll clean up that nasty cut of yours; then you can tell me what happened." Tony nodded. Maria held out her hand and Tony took it. She led him to the kitchen and sat him on the counter. She got a paper towel and wetted it. She gently patted it on Tony's cut to stop the bleeding. _

"_So, what happened?" she asked. Tony began to tell the whole story._

**Sorry, got a little carried away there. Flashback end!**

"Tony, that's terrible!" Pepper frowned. That had explained why he never wanted to do anything at night, like go out to parties or other fun stuff; and why he didn't want to go to that grocery store.

"Yeah, I know. I have the scar on my knee, too." Tony said. They turned back to watch the fireworks.

After a while, Tony stood and walked a few feet away from their seats on the ledge during fireworks. He didn't feel like watching pretty lights in the sky. Pepper noticed him walk away and joined him.

"Tony, what's wrong?" Pepper asked.

"Nothing, it's nothing." Tony said. He looked up into her eyes and smiled.

"You, umm…look pretty tonight…" Tony said, blushing. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously and looked away. Pepper smiled and looked down at her feet.

"Umm, thanks." She said. Tony looked in her eyes and couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, he did like her. And if he did, he sure liked her a lot; because she was beautiful tonight in his eyes. Pepper looked up at him and they just stared for moments until Tony finally decided to kiss her. He leaned in and touched her lips with his just as the finale to the fireworks shone over the Statue of Liberty. Pepper smiled and kissed back. As the firework finale finished, Tony pulled away. He smiled.

"Happy fourth, I guess, right?" Tony said. Pepper giggled and took his hand. She led him back to their seats, never letting go of his hand.

**Endd~ wasn't it great? I meant to get this posted like, Saturday, then I got delayed by celebration. And I just plain didn't have time yesterday either. So it's a late 'happy 4****th****!' story. Wooppp. Review!**


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